How Not to Make Friends on the Greyhound Bus

Those of us who ride public transportation on a regular basis appreciate the sometimes-peculiar experience of being alone together. We all want as much privacy as the confines of a crowded subway car allow, which often means totally ignoring another human whose clothes are brushing up against your own. Maintaining order in a tight public space often requires us to pay others the respect of pretending they don't exist.

The sociologist Erving Goffman once called this type of behavior "civil inattention." Goffman's term covers fleeting interactions, such as riding a few stops on the subway or passing strangers on a city sidewalk. But what about situations where people are pressed together in a confined space for longer periods of time, as on intercity transportation? In this case our isolation takes a step forward and becomes active "social disengagement," according to Yale University doctoral candidate Esther Kim.